It’s a Small World After All : Russian Exchange Students Staying in South County Visit Disneyland

East met West near the corner of Main Street and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

Vitali Kjejevitch, 13, stepped quickly to avoid being trampled by a marching brass band dressed in bright red uniforms. Viola Shirobokova, 16, stared wide-eyed at the gateway to Fantasyland as Olga Kolesova, 15, wondered out loud in Russian if she could go to school here.

“Disneyland doesn’t have a school,” teased a smiling Irene Lejneva, 43, as she led a group of 20 Russian exchange students on a trip to Disneyland this week. “You’ll have to settle for visiting here.”

The youths shook hands with Mickey Mouse, rode the Mad Hatter’s teacups and ogled the fairyland wonders on their trip to the Magic Kingdom.

The students will stay in Orange County for about 10 days, venturing out of the county to tour such sights as Universal Studios and the UCLA campus. After their visit, they will scatter to high schools and universities throughout the country under a program sponsored by the International Education Forum.

Some of the students have already spent several months getting an education in the United States. Others were just arriving from Russia. All are between ages 13 and 20 and will be staying at the homes of volunteer families in South County until they leave on Friday.

Most of the group arrived Wednesday night. The next morning, they were lining up for tickets at the front gate to Disneyland.

“I heard of Mickey Mouse when I was 5,” said Kolesova, waiting in line to ride the Matterhorn. “When I come to America, I want to find out what is fairyland and what is true. This is a fairyland that is real.”

One reality is that this trip would not have been possible before perestroika, the commitment to rebuilding the Russian economic system started by then-President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1985, said Lejneva, an associate history professor at the St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance in Russia.

During the Cold War, Russian students traveled abroad but only to Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, she said.

“The ability of our students to experience life in the West was one of the great contributions of perestroika, “ Lejneva said. “Our students have choices on how they want to arrange their personal life.”

But politics were left behind as soon as the youths stepped through the gates of Disneyland.

Wearing Nikes on their feet, baggy Levi’s and T-shirts, most of the group looked and acted like American teen-agers. The older students sneered a little at the spinning teacups and dashed away to try the faster rides.

Overall, the Russian youths “are very well-mannered,” said Lila Brumbeck, a coordinator for the International Education Forum in Orange County who arranges for visits from students around the world. The trek to Disneyland was her third leading a group of foreign students to the internationally known attraction.

“You couldn’t hold the Spanish students down,” she said. “As soon as they got off the bus, boom, they were scattered all over the park. The French (students) had a pretty good time, too.”

The Russians’ favorite attraction? Michael Jackson’s “Captain Eo” 3-D movie seemed to be the most popular among the students.

“Michael Jackson is great,” said Lejneva’s daughter, Irene Grigorjeva, a 16-year-old who is going to school in Santa Barbara through the exchange program. “Many people love him in Russia.”

The students made several visits to the food stands and idled patiently among the large holiday crowds waiting to get into the more popular rides.

“We are familiar with waiting in lines” for basic commodities, Lejneva said. “But this is not the same.”

In her short time in California, what impressed Lejneva the most was the willingness of volunteer families to open their homes to strangers.

“It is very kind of them, especially during the holiday season,” she said. “This is the great treasure of this program, what is being contributed to the culture of our young people.

“They will take some of Disneyland back with them, and also the hospitality that has been shown to them.”